By David Cristol
Photos by Emanuele Meschini and Edward Roncarolo.
Located in the Piedmont region of Italy, west of Milano, the 21st
edition of Novara Jazz, programmed by Corrado Beldì and Riccardo Cigolotti
with input from Enrico Bettinello of the Novara-based WeStart organization,
unfolded from May 31 to June 9. Its last leg had a wealth of acts in
aesthetic unison with the Free Jazz Collective.
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| Gordon Grdina |
The Broletto is a wide transverse courtyard in the middle of several
historic buildings and museums, where the free (as in gratis) evening
concerts take place. After a slice of 1940s big band jazz, we move to the
place where Canada’s Gordon Grdina and Germany’s
Christian Lillinger
are getting ready. A last-minute change of venue saw the duo adapt their
music, which is carried out on the doorstep of the “Space in the Place” art
store on Corso Italia. The dense, tense and loud set is chockful of
electronics, both artists equipped with abundant gear – which is rather new
to them, we learn. I mostly knew the “gentle” side of Grdina, not so much
his electric rock persona, pretty much to the fore here. The subtle,
expressive and sometimes explosive drummer and his string agitating accomplice do not allow room for breaks or silence. Their glorious racket
fills the otherwise quiet Ligurian streets, whose passers-by and
inhabitants either flee in terror, close their windows and shutters, or come
out on the balconies and postpone their errands to enjoy the show. The
journey through the hurricane is propelled by the hyperactive Lillinger,
who nonetheless finds time to comb his hair between millimetric strikes and
other spaceship dashboard sounds. The wall of sound approach settles down
as the guitarist unpacks the oud, which we do not hear for long as the
saturated guitar, abundant drumming and bubbly synth blips quickly resume,
in the late warm afternoon.
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| Alexander Hawkins |
The Alexander Hawkins Dialect Quintet makes its worldwide
premiere, prior to hitting the studio in Torino. The hubbub from the nearby
restaurant terrace proves enough of a nuisance to impair the audience and
musicians’ listening, and Hawkins wisely adapts his demeanor to the
situation, often taking his hands off the keyboard to better pay attention
to the handiwork of his younger colleagues. Technical constraint aside, the
pianist can do no wrong and has rehearsed the band well, on a set of
compositions bearing his stamp, encompassing rhythm and freedom, structure
and adventurous directions, perched between jazz and modern music, with
contours that are never obvious to begin with, and some discernible African
influence early on. One such piece is 'Generous Souls' from his 2022
album “Break a Vase”, another is a dreamy tune reminiscent of Wayne Shorter.
Camila Nebbia provides inspired solos on a great sounding
tenor, with Francesca Remigi on drums and guitarist
Giacomo Zanus also using electronics. Duet and trio
associations make up the bulk of the set. Hawkins pays tribute to Gerry
Hemingway, “one of the best composers for quintet” and to Myra
Melford, both seated in the audience. 'Albert Ayler, his life was too short'
stems from composer Leroy Jenkins and his Equal Interest trio with Melford
and Joseph Jarman, and makes for a great finale. The long and winding piece
is atmospheric at first, with a solo intro from Nebbia and scattered sounds
from inside the piano, then rises to insurrection levels with buzzing
electronics and layered noise from the guitar, Hawkins stirring the band to
a fireworks display. On the following day at noon, Hawkins’ solid bassist
Ferdinando Romano presents his
“Invisible Painters”
band at the Cortile Palazzo Tornielli. We’re into European
jazz territory, alternating or maybe hesitating between contemplative pieces
and rhythmic workouts. While there is no shortage of skills, the project
needs to be better defined, the liberal and fashionable use of electronics
not being necessarily the best way to go about it.
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| Joëlle Léandre |
The following morning starts with a solo at
Galleria Giannoni. Joëlle Léandre is presented with a Golden Key to the
city. This award follows the French double bassist recognition at last
year's Vision festival in New York. She gives a speech about learning,
unlearning, discovering free jazz at the American Center in Paris, and
talks about her lifelong quest to becoming herself. “Be you!”, she
likes to encourage others. In his liner notes to the box set A Woman’s
Work, Stuart Broomer writes:
“Above all, the great improviser practices, we might assume, the habit
of inspiration, (…) but also, one suspects, the ability to profit from
boredom, distraction, even irritation.” Whatever mood she’s in, whatever the playing conditions are, Léandre
knows no fear of the blank page and is able to tap into an endless well of
instant inspiration, only needing a few seconds’ focus to delve into each
successive piece. This also involves reliance on memory – maybe this is not
said enough – in order to give each track a shape and flavor, an entity
with a beginning, middle and end. Such is the art of the improviser and our
bassist embodies it, making use of a keen sense of timing and connection to
the audience, including laughter and derision. She is driven and her
discourse ever relevant, helped by flawless technique to express her ideas.
I wonder, aren’t Léandre’s solos really duets, with their inclusion of
spontaneous vocals? Somewhere between opera singer and Native American
sorcerer, Léandre whispers, whimpers and rumbles, accompanying a drone kept
alive with the bow.
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| Myra Melford |
The inner courtyard of Palazzo Bellini is where pianist
Myra Melford shows up unaccompanied – a rare occasion.
Once more I’m struck with the vigorous, fierce attack on the keys, the
rhythmic impulse noticeable even in the more abstract moments. These are
written compositions and each one feels like an adventure, a plunge in a
waterfall, full of dangers and unexpected wonders. The writing is highly
evolved yet deeply rooted in jazz and blues, with the early influence of
Don Pullen and Henry Threadgill still felt. Other recurring sources of
inspiration come from painting and literature. Melford plays her own music,
not standards, although it is possible to hear some echoes of Gershwin in
there too. The palette is as broad as it is precise in its intentions and
implementation. And proof that formal innovation can be attained without
electronics. Not a hint of mawkishness here, but a tumultuous lyricism
instead. Some pieces are faster than the speed of light, all hammered
eighth-notes and hefty clusters in the low register. Like timeless
tableaux, Melford's tunes are so rich one would have to study them at length and
from different perspectives to grasp all the nuances they withhold.
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| Pasquale Mirra |
The Italian trio of piccolo trumpeter and flautist
Gabriele Mitelli, vibraphonist Pasquale Mirra and drummer
Cristiano Calcagnile
(all three also on vocals) plays next. 'The Elephant' is
spaced-out electro-jazz-rock, very much a satellite project to Rob
Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra, which doesn’t come as a surprise since
both Mirra and Mitelli are collaborators of the Chicago trumpeter and
composer. An electronic motif serving as the basis for a track resembles
that of Disco 3000 by Sun Ra, while other pieces lean on binary
grooves, sometimes close to hip-hop. Ambient soundscapes lead to a showcase
for the drummer, while Mitelli’s brief bursts rely on extended techniques
and take precedence over jazz phrasing, when he doesn’t entirely put down
his instruments to concentrate on sound effects.
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| Guus Janssen |
Dutch pianist and improviser Guus Janssen treats us to
an organ recital at the
Church of San Giovanni Decollato, titled 'Le direzioni del vento (Directions of the wind).' Away with conventions: it’s playful, irreverent, funny, from classical
music pastiches to recurring quotes of the Spiderman theme song from the
late 70s TV show. The virtuoso jumps from unabashedly repetitive chords
mocking – affectionately we surmise – caricatural rock and roll and
psychedelic pop. The whole zany thing is presented with the utmost
seriousness and rings beautifully in the chapel where ancient fresco
reliefs remain. The organ manages to evoke bagpipes and a cow mooing at
some point, before an official-sounding anthem is put to the test by
incongruous inserts. The extraordinary solo set has everyone in fits before
the mood gets darker with a song by an Italian composer as a paean to
silence, and for the encore, a piece by a Dutch composer, inspired by the
moon and to which the veteran scamp – who has a speaking voice not unlike
that of Max von Sydow – adds an epic ending.
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| Rodrigo Amado |
Another solo was also a highlight of this edition. Lisbon’s
Rodrigo Amado's (tenor sax) set was planned to happen in the towering
Basilica di San Gaudenzio but was relocated to Sala
dell’Arengo. The musician was able to visit the
space on the previous day and was not only reassured, but enthused by its
acoustic properties. In 2022, Amado released Refraction solo. Busy with
trios and quartets, he rarely performs alone and relishes the opportunity.
He engages in open idiomatic improvisation, organized, melodic, textured,
unhurried, the unfolding more linear than choppy. The first improvisation
is a variation on Sonny Rollins’ Freedom Now Suite. When Amado tilts the horn's bell towards the seated folk, the sound hits like a gust of
wind, a reminder that he’s a powerful player. Other points of departure for
Amado’s flights of imagination are Albert Ayler’s “Ghosts” and the
spiritual “There is a balm in Gilead”. One of the most consistently
stimulating saxophonists of this century, with a great knowledge about the
history of the music and a vivid creativity to push it forward.
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| François Houle |
'Faded Yellow', 'Dragon’s blood' , 'Green – Absynthe', 'Umber', 'Heliotrope' and 'Azure'
are
François Houle Quintet “The Secret Lives of Color”
titles, actually improvisations with minimal directions such
as the order of tutti, duos and trios. Joining the clarinet player from
Canada are Myra Melford, Gordon Grdina, Joëlle
Léandre, and Gerry Hemingway on drums: not your
everyday line-up! At the foot of the towering Duomo, the audience is
invited to sit in the grass, while the group plays under the arches of the
rectory, protected from a menacing rainstorm. After an introduction from
the leader, a series of surges and lulls ensue. For most of the duration
the music is, maybe surprisingly, subdued, to the point that one also hears
the doves in the trees, birds fighting on the ancient tiled roofs, and the
humming of disoriented bees' wings, whose dwelling place we are disturbing.
Grdina shines on guitar then oud, and Houle extracts some mysterious flute
sounds from the clarinet. Hemingway caresses the percussion rather than
strikes it, and is also heard on harmonica, vocals and whistle, while
Léandre and Melford are careful of serving the collective poetry. The musicians have history together, which explains why this quintet came to be, the telepathic connection of its members and the emotional state of the leader at the end of the set: Joëlle and Myra are two thirds of the Tiger trio, Gerry Hemingway played in groups with Joëlle and Myra separately, Canadians Houle and Grdina recorded several albums together, such as
Ghost Lights in 2017 and
Recoder in 2020 (with Gerry Hemingway and Mark Helias), while Houle and Léandre had a trio with Raymond Strid (issued on
9 Moments in 2007) and with Benoît Delbecq on
14, rue Paul Fort, on Leo Records in 2015. So that's a lot of threads, travels and experiences coming together today in Novara.
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| The Secret Lives of Color + festival organizers |
Novara jazz is a welcoming and feelgood event, and the city a pleasure to
wander in – with jazz from young musicians heard at every corner. While the
festival doesn’t specialize in free music, many acts were firmly of the
creative and improvised music ethos, with remarkable solo performances and
rare groupings. It was great to hear some musicians in more than one
project, and to see many of them stay the course to check their colleagues
and friends’ work, in a variety of palazzos, courtyards, galleries
and outdoor spots. Not to forget the wine tasting!
